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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
lesbian activists abseiled into the House of Lords from the public gallery shouting "Lesbians are angry" in protest about anti-gay legislation.Jo, are you serious?!?! Oh, how FUNNY! And I thought WE got crazy! Oh oh oh! Shades of grade B Tarzan movies! But--are you also serious about there being a REAL mace in your government hall? Not the pepper spray? (I was envisioning a Member wielding that tiny canister...)  And, is it happenstance, by happenstance, that the benches are two sword-lengths apart?
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
When they remodelled the New Zealand House of Representatives legislative chamber (ie Parliament) they actually, if my sources are correct, put the two sides of the horseshoe at a distance apart dictated entirely by the width of the carpet that had to be laid between the two sets of benches. They designed it with 100 seats. Parliament promptly went and introduced mixed member proportional voting (MMP) and, at the same time, raised the number of MPs to 120. Guess what happened?
Nice going, chaps.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>But--are you also serious about there being a REAL mace in your government hall?
There is a picture of the mace in the second link of my last post, it looks pretty heavy.
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
The mce was originally used for grinding up the burridge they put in the Earl Grey tea. It made such a nice noise when they did it they had to come up with a song.
A grating Mace, how sweet the sound.
TEd
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
In reply to:
And, is it happenstance, by happenstance, that the benches are two sword-lengths apart?
By design. I don't know if any unfortunate incidents had taken place but apparently there was a real possibility that they might.
Bingley
Bingley
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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They may speak from the side galleries, but due to the lack of microphones there is a strong disincentive from doing so. Also, the Speaker will not call a Member in the Gallery if there is room downstairs. They must stand whilst speaking, but a disabled or incapacitated Member is naturally allowed to address the House seated. The style of debate in the House has traditionally been based one of cut-and-thrust; listening to other Members' speeches and intervening in them in spontaneous reaction to opponents' views. It is thus very different from the debating style in use in some overseas legislatures, where reading of set-piece speeches from a podium or from individual desks is much more often the norm.
I watched a bit of C-SPAN coverage the other night. it seems that they now accommodate the back-benchers with overhanging microphones. the front benchers may not give set-piece speeches, but they have enormous 3-ring binders full of notes, which they carry back-and-forth to their small podium adjacent to the speaker's desk.
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